"Remember Us" - American Cemetery in Holland

The cemetery visits are in Belgium and the US one is the Flanders Field American Cemetery with graves from WWI.

https://app-azeabmcgovwpprod.azurewebsites.net/cemeteries-memorials/about-flanders-field-american-cemetery/

While the cemetery is cared for by the American Battlefields Monument Commission, the local community is actively involved in remembering and honoring the troops who lost their lives. The school kids adopt a soldier and learn about his life. I found this a very poignant place to visit.

The same day you will also visit British/Commonwealth graves as well as a German Cemetery all from WWI.

Editing to add: I’m not familiar with the book but the only American Cemetery in Netherlands is this one.

https://app-azeabmcgovwpprod.azurewebsites.net/cemeteries-memorials/about-netherlands-american-cemetery/

This also is under the care of the ABMC who cares for the graves. The local community undoubtedly does the same honoring as the Flanders Field Cemetery community.

I’ve always been humbled by the feeling from the local communities for the troops who helped liberate them in WWI and WWII. Visiting any American cemetery in Europe is awesome.

The ABMC cemeteries are remarkable places. Very moving and beautifully cared for. I’ve only seen one, the North African cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, but I would like to see more. They are in England, the Low Countries, France, Italy, Tunisia, and the Philippines (for WW II — there are some others for other wars).

Pam - that makes sense. Thanks for the information.

We’ve been to Colleville-sur-Mer a few years back. Very moving to see the graves of the unknowns decorated by the French.

Jim, On the tour you will visit the very beautiful and moving WW1 Flanders Field American Cemetery in Belgium. And with the same respect as you mention regarding the Netherlands American Cemetery (which is not on the itinerary) you will hear very personal stories and learn about how the wonderful citizens of Belgium "adopt" the soldiers (average age 19) to keep their memory alive.

The RS Belgium and Holland tour is wonderful. Enjoy!

KD - thank you. I guess we’re seeing a few cemeteries and won’t mind missing the one in the book. This will be our 8th RSE tour.

Please forgive me for being pedantic, but the American Cemetery you mean is not in Holland. It’s in Margraten, in the province called Limburg in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.
The Netherlands has 12 provinces, 2 of them are North-Holland and South-Holland, but somehow people (including Rick Steves) refer to our entire country as Holland instead of the Netherlands. Some Dutch people, certainly the ones from North or South-Holland, won’t mind when you refer to them as being from Holland. Others, for instance the proud Limburgers, will object. To them “Holland” feels far away physically and mentally as well as culturally.

With that said. I can certainly understand that you want to honor your fallen countrymen by visiting the cemetery. However, given it’s location all the way down in the southeastern part of our country, the American Cemetery in Margraten won’t be easy to reach on your own before the tour. If you really have your heart set on visiting that cemetery, the easiest way would be to rent a car in Bruges. The drive should be around 2.5 hours one way, depending on traffic.
Another option is to take the train from Bruges in Belgium to Maastricht in the Netherlands and to then take a taxi to the cemetery. The train ride down will be just under 4 hours, one way, with one easy change of train in Liege. The subsequent taxi ride should be around 15 minutes.

Well said Dutch_traveler.

"but somehow people (including Rick Steves) refer to our entire country as Holland instead of the Netherlands."

To be completely pedantic, this tour only visits locations in Holland - in this instance Rotterdam and Amsterdam are the overnights. Previously it was Delft instead of Rotterdam so that is still South Holland, I think.

However, I understand how Rick allowing the jump to be made that Holland = Netherlands is very annoying and can lead people who are not familiar with it to the wrong conclusion. On my RS Belgium and Holland tour the guide, Ellen, was Dutch and took pains to explain the geography to us.

“ To be completely pedantic, this tour only visits locations in Holland - in this instance Rotterdam and Amsterdam are the overnights. Previously it was Delft instead of Rotterdam so that is still South Holland, I think.”

The tour also only visits the Flemish part of Belgium, so following that logic the tour should be called “The heart of Flanders and Holland”. But it isn’t, that part of the tour is named after the whole country not after the only autonomous region it visits.

I’m happy to hear though that the RS guides do provide correct information and explain why referring to the Netherlands as Holland can be a sensitive thing.

I listened to Rick's show from a few weeks ago. He had (quoting Rick) "a pair of Dutch guides (to) illuminate the differences between the fairy-tale provinces of Holland and the country of The Netherlands." I won't make that mistake again.

I can see that visiting Margraten would be more of a side trip than we would care to undertake.